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Bowmar MX-90 Handheld Electronic Calculator

Bowmar MX-90 Handheld Electronic Calculator

The firm of Bowmar/Ali manufactured electronic calculators in the early 1970s. Its first calculators carried out basic arithmetic, with occasional attempts at percentages. In mid-1974, the company introduced what one advertisement called "a brilliant new calculator," the MX-90. It not only offered four arithmetic function keys and a percent key, but reciprocals, square roots, sign change and four memory keys. Behind the keyboard was a ten-digit display.

The plug for the power supply was at the back. (This example has no power supply.)

A tag on the back of this example reads in part: Bowmar MX-90 CALCULATOR. Further text toward the bottom of the tag reads: USE ONLY ADAPTER PROVIDED TO RECHARGE BATTERIES AND TO (/) OPERATE ON AC. (/) MODEL No. MX-90 SERIAL NO. 174939 (/) BOWMAR/ALI, INC., ACTON, MASSACHUSETTS 01720 U.S.A.

The device has a black zippered sleeve, with a loop so that it could be carried from the belt. The front of the sleeve reads: BOWMAR.

An advertisement in July 1974 issues of the Los Angeles Times indicate that the MX-90 then sold for $89.99. By December 1975, an advertisement in the New York Times lists the model as was on sale for $30. A Chicago Tribune advertisement from December 1975, indicates that the model had an original dealer's price of $58.50 and was on sale for $39.99.